Hello Folks.   I'm still looking for an inboard drive shaft and a diff casing. If anybody has a spare one please get in touch before I go to the trouble of a risky/costly repair.

It seems that more than one of you good people want to know more about the dreaded Elite Workshop Manual. It's not much of a tale really;  I think its more a case of wanting to exonerate myself; having been stupid enough to admit to being involved in its production in the first place.

Well, the story behind the Elite workshop manual is ...  James Allington, the man who does those wonderful 'exploded' and ' transparent view ' drawings, was commissioned at short notice to produce a manual. I say short notice because with Colin it was always short notice.

Colin Chapman always worked hand-to-mouth, that is, he thought up something, had it cast, machined, and on the road the next day. If it lasted till the following day it became a production item, and if lasted two days it was probably too strong. Colin was a great entrepreneur, very wilful, and very difficult to keep up with. The drawing office worked two years behind.  By the time they completed detail drawings, most of the detail had changed, which didn't matter because Colin was already working on next year's car. Most of the designs were in Colin's head or on the back of tatty envelopes ... so I suggest James's remit wasn't simple.

He was ace at the pictures, and had the production and printing under control. As I recall, I was called upon to provide the words.  When it came to proprietary components (Lucas, Triumph Herald, Girling, Morris Minor etc.) I just photocopied the appropriate sections from the literature of those manufacturers, and then went to some lengths to write notes to link them together, and notes about the notes to explain ... well ... the notes. I then sat back and waited for the proofs to come back from the printer. They would have to be read, corrected and laid out into pages, then page proofs, read, corrected etc. etc.

I got involved in other things, and forgot about the Manual.

A week or two later, Mark Roberts, a very clever Australian guy, came into our office after an absence of several days with his face all bandaged. Now, he owned and raced a seven - a Lotus 7 that is. He'd been rotating around some circuit or other, lost it, hit the barrier, spun and backed into the barrier again, still at high speed; his head had gone back then rebounded into the shards and splinters of the popular wood-rimmed steering wheel of the day; which had been mangled in the primary impact. Now I don't know if it was the back and forth, zoom-out zoom-in effect of Mark's head vis-a-vis the crown-of-thorns steering wheel, but Mark recovered and went on to develop the Zoom Lens (and a lot of money) I believe. And that's why my Elite's 'woodrim' is nailed to the wall over my fireplace.

I think that marked the end of Mark Roberts' motor racing career, not only because of the hideous wounding, but, whilst repairing the 7 he set fire to the fuel tank and burnt the car to the ground, as well as his friend's garage.

I told you that I'd forgotten about the Manual, didn't I? ...

Tony.     Nov 3rd 2001